


The Pig's Wife

by CaptainLeBubbles



Series: Fairy Tales Interrupted [1]
Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Original Work
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fairy Tales Interrupted, The Enchanted Pig rewrite, Witch's Hut, rule of three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 23:46:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29498280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLeBubbles/pseuds/CaptainLeBubbles
Summary: She was never one to be dissuaded when she set her mind on something.Even if it meant walking to the ends of the earth with a baby on her back to take back her husband.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character, background Moon/Sun
Series: Fairy Tales Interrupted [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2166774
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	The Pig's Wife

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little bit of a departure for me- a fairy tale rewrite that is both about a het couple, and where I actually didn't change that much about the original (until the tail end, anyway). Also played around with my writing style to create something that felt a bit more like a fairy tale.
> 
> This takes place within the world of Fairy Tales Interrupted, but is outside of the actual concept- it should stand pretty well on its own, if you're not interested in Interrupted itself. If you are interested, why not pay a visit to my blog (@grifalinas on Tumblr) and visit [the tag](https://grifalinas.tumblr.com/tagged/fairy-tales-interrupted)?

-/-

There was once, in a kingdom which no longer exists, a man who had three daughters. This man was poor and his daughters beautiful, and he thought he might with this get them spouses who would give them a better life than he could afford.

It went as he hoped: in the first year that the eldest came of courting age, she found love with a grocer’s son. Her father said:  _ Ah! People need groceries year round; as a grocer’s wife, you will always have an income, and always be necessary in your community, and so I know you will be happy. _ And so the eldest married her grocer, and her father was glad that she would be provided for.

Not long after her sister had gone to her house, the second daughter came to courting age, and within half the year she had drawn the eye of the woman who designed gowns for the rich ladies in the town. Her father saw this and said:  _ Well! You will be dependent on the waxing and waning seasons of fashion, but during the full times you will have enough income to put by for the lean times, and you will be in the company and notice of those who have an opportunity to do right by you, and so I know you will be happy.  _ So the second daughter married her designer, and it was a relief to her poor father.

In time, the youngest daughter came of courting age, but though she had the most suitors, she turned away all but a young and poor huntsman. She swore she would have no other but him, but her father worried for her, and said:  _ If you marry this poor huntsman, you will be not much better off than you are with me. Your entire income will depend on what game is available, and you will have hard work ahead of you _ . But the youngest was not deterred.

Her father still objected, so the poor huntsman declared that he would go into the world and find his fortune, and once he did then he would give the youngest the life her father wished for her, and begged the girl to wait for him, and so the betrothal was arranged, and the young huntsman went out into the world, and was not heard from again.

Seven years passed after that (seven years being the amount of time required by law before a betrothal could be considered dissolved should one party be missing), and by this point the youngest daughter had grown entirely into a young woman, but her heart was cold and hard at the loss of her love, and she declared that whoever came courting for her when she was once more free of her betrothal she would marry with will.

Her father was as distraught by this as he had been at the thought of her working herself to the grave as a huntsman’s wife, and said to her:  _ You are more beautiful now than the day when you came of courting age, and you have in seven years built a resume of skills that would make you an ideal wife for anyone. Show some discernment, and court one who can make you happy, and provide for you at once. _

But she knew her own mind and would never be dissuaded, and her father, who felt the distress he had unwittingly caused his daughter, relented.

On the day after the young woman’s betrothal was dissolved, a boar came to their cottage, and asked to court the young woman, because he had heard that she would be an ideal wife for anyone, and wished her to be his. The father tried to protest- he would not like to see his daughter married to a boar, he said- but the young woman reminded him of her promise, and agreed to marry the boar right away.

And so it was. But though she knew her own mind, and would not back down when she had chosen to do something, she still felt some apprehension as her new husband carried her to his home. What sort of husband could a boar make?

The boar, sensing her apprehension, said:  _ I do not have a fine, grand house, nor can I offer you servants. As my wife you will need to work for your daily bread. But I am not unkind, nor will I see you overworked. I have some income, and I can provide for a household, or I should not have taken a wife at all. _

His wife was mollified by this, especially when she saw the house he kept, which was simple but quite clean, and very comfortable. When they reached it, he told her that he had prepared a marriage bed for them, and she was to go there and wait for him, and he would join her after nightfall.

The young woman was apprehensive once more, but her husband assured her that all would be well, that she only had to wait for nightfall, and he would come to her in a much more pleasing state, but she must keep the curtains pulled as tightly as possible.

Driven now more by curiosity enough to overcome her apprehension, she did as he asked, and after nightfall the door to the room opened and a shape approached her: but this shape was the shape of a man under her hands, not a boar, and she felt a little better reassured by this state of things.

When they lay together much later, she asked him how this had come to be, and he said:  _ I am at present under a curse, so that I can only come to you as a man at night, and remain a boar during the day. _

His wife asked:  _ Can I see your face, then? May I look upon my husband? _

But he told her no, that she must never see his face when he was in this form, or they would be lost to one another. And though her curiosity was great, she agreed, and so they made their life in this way, and in time the young woman found herself falling quite in love with her husband, who was kind and gentle, and knew a great deal of things from his travels, and entertained her in the evenings with stories of his adventures, and at night he came to her as a man in their marriage bed, and so despite her husband’s cursed state, the two were happy, and made a very merry home together.

In time, it came about that an old woman passed by where the young woman was keeping her house, and begged of her some hospitality. The young woman was very happy to grant it, and shared her lunch with the old woman, who wanted to know whose house this was. The young woman told the old woman of her husband the boar, and the curse he was under, that he could only come to her as a man at night, and that she couldn’t look upon him.

_This,_ the old woman said, _is unhappy news._

_ But I don’t mind so much, _ the young wife assured her.  _ We’re quite happy together otherwise. _

_ I just wonder if he might be lying, _ the old woman said. _H_ __e_ may be a boar who can shapeshift. No, no, that’s unfair, there are many who are cursed. I’m sure it’s nothing. _

And she changed the subject, but she had planted the seed of doubt in the young woman’s thoughts, which was her intention, so when the couple lay asleep that night, the young wife fretted in her heart over whether the old woman could have been right.

_ I’ll just take a tiny peek _ , she said to her self.  _ I’ll pull the curtain back the tiniest amount, just enough to welcome in a sliver of moonlight, and that will not be nearly enough to see his face, but it will assure me that what he claims is true. _

For, of course, the old woman had remarked that a shapeshifter’s true form could be restored by moonlight, and this surely must be the true reason he forbade her from looking on him at night. This was only speculation, of course, and the young wife must disregard her, she had just learned in her life not to trust. No, it’s probably nothing. Don’t worry about it.

As soon as the moonlight touched the face of the man in the bed, his wife gasped, for there at her side was her betrothed! Her gasp woke him, and he cursed quite vehemently, and had just enough time to lament that she had not trusted him, because his curse was nearly timed out, but now she had made it worse, and he must go away until she had worn down three pairs of iron shoes, and blunted a steel staff from searching for him, and at that he vanished.

I’m sure you can imagine how unhappy the young woman was at this second loss of her beloved! But, as she was a stubborn woman, she determined that she would go and find her husband, and bring him back as soon as possible, whether he be a boar or a man or both, and she also cursed the old woman who had planted the doubt in her mind.

So she went to the blacksmith and had made three pairs of iron shoes and a steel staff, packed her a sack of provisions, and set out into the world to find her husband.

The young woman walked and walked, and then she walked some more, and yet more, and when she felt that she could not walk a step farther she walked more anyway. Everywhere she went she asked if any had seen her husband, and all of them had not, and so she carried on.

In time, her walking carried her beyond where anyone could be found, and still she kept walking, even when her path began to slope and she found herself walking up a high steep mountain of ivory, until her iron shoes were quite worn down, and when she finally wondered if she might collapse from walking, she found herself outside of a beautiful palace of white stone.

This was the palace of the Moon, and he was quite surprised to find a mortal in his realm. She seemed so ready to collapse that he had his stewardess bring her into the palace and made comfortable, and bade her to be cared for while he was away walking his path tonight.

When he returned, he asked how she had come here, and she told him her story. When she had done, he wept bitterly for all that she had endured, and all she must endure yet, and even more when he must tell her he had no idea where her husband must be, for, as he explained, it was such an anguish to find lovers kept apart by a curse.

_ What is more, _ he said,  _ the first and last I have seen of your husband is when I looked on him in your marriage bed, and I have not seen him since. _

This was poor news, and the woman wept right alongside the Moon when she heard this, until the whole parlor rang with their tears. But, they felt a little better when they had done weeping, and the Moon, now able to think clearly, told her to enjoy his hospitality awhile, and he would see if he could find her husband in the meantime, for she was in no state now to be traveling.

Indeed she wasn’t, and while she stayed in the Moon’s palace, she gave birth to a beautiful young son, who her husband had left with her before her folly.

_ He looks very much like his father, _ his mother said, when the Moon came to admire her son.  _ Now I wonder how I could have not recognized him at all, whether I could see him or not. _

But the Moon assured her there was no great mystery in the matter. _ For, _ he explained,  _ just as I change my face a little bit each night, humans also change a little bit each day. When you are present to witness the change, it is not noticeable, but if enough time passes, then one may seem an entirely different person. If you saw me a fortnight from now, you would think me quite a different Moon! It is the same with your husband. Seven years apart was enough to make a different man of him, and a different woman of you. _

The young woman conceded the reality of this, and fell into a thoughtful silence, so the Moon bid her rest, and recover her strength.

_ For, _ he said,  _ I know well that you must return to searching for your husband, but I would not see you go until you are in a state to continue. _

So, the young woman stayed for a month, but after that time she could no longer bear to wait, so she tossed away the first worn pair of iron shoes and put on a second, set her son in a sling, and took the provisions that the Moon sent along with her, including among them a whole roasted chicken. He instructed her to be careful not to lose any of the bones, for they may be of use to her later, and with that last warning she was away.

The Moon had suggested that she try her luck in the house of the Sun, and given her directions, so she set about in that direction, with her son on her back, passing through a blistering desert, through a land where lakes of liquid fire bubbled on the surface of the earth, and then up a mountain of black glass, where her iron shoes could barely find purchase to carry her upwards. But in time she found herself finally at her destination, at the foot of a palace of gold and bronze and copper.

The Sun’s steward was shocked to find her outside of the palace of the Sun, and brought her in immediately, but he told her that she must remain hidden until the Sun was mollied once he returned. The Sun was always angry in the evenings, he explained, so he would hide her until the Sun’s temper had faded, as it never lasted long.

It went as he said, and after a short while of shouting and curses against the Sun’s sister the Sky, the Sun had calmed his ire, and the steward brought the young woman and her little boy before him, and she told him her story.

When he had heard all that she had to tell him, he raged once more, but this time on her behalf, bellowing wicked things, vile things, about whoever had cursed her husband, whoever would dare to keep the lovers apart, which, he said, was a terrible and wicked thing for anyone to do.

_ But, _ he said, his temper once again ebbing,  _ I will go out into the world tomorrow and look, and hopefully I can find him for you. _

The young woman thanked him a hundred times, and was shown to a room where she might rest from her trials, and where her little boy could be cared for, and both could be restored to good health.

The next night the Sun came to her and said that he had not seen her husband anywhere, anywhere at all, which was quite troubling.

_ For, _ he explained,  _ if I could not find him, then he is somewhere my sight cannot reach, and that is a very troublesome place to be. _

The devoted wife would have been away again in that moment at the idea if the Sun had not convinced her to stay but a little while, as she was of no use to her husband if she keeled over and died from her exertions.

She agreed, but only stayed for a fortnight, unwilling to wait any longer. During this time, she got to know the Sun, and found that they had several acquaintances in common- for, of course, the Sun knows everyone there is to know!

She also told the Sun of her conversation with the Moon, and wondered how, if she and her husband were such different people, she had come to love him anyway.

_ Ah, well, that is not so strange a thing. Love is enduring, just as I am. No matter what happens, I will always return and warm the earth, and the same is true of true love. No amount of change can quell it. _

On her last night in the palace of the Sun, she asked him why he was angry each night when he returned home.

_ That is thanks to the machinations of my sister the Sky, _ he explained.  _ She has deemed that my husband and I must not meet. No matter how late I stay out in the daytime, and no matter how early he rises in the night, we are always kept apart by our sister. You see, dear lady, I too know the pain of being separated from my lover. _

The woman recalled the Moon’s grief, and grew angry on the Sun’s behalf. Who was the Sky to keep them apart? And in her anger, she also grew angry on her own behalf, over the ill she was suffering, over the evil she had done her son to drag him into this life- what a poor first year he’d had! 

Nothing would keep her from her husband, but someone had tried, and whoever they were, she set her mind that she would see them spited their victory. She would find her husband!

When the woman left that morning, the Sun walked with her for a way, and before they must part he suggested that she try the house of the four winds, who, traveling every corner, nook, and cranny of the world as they did, may have better luck than he at finding her husband. He also, as the Moon had, gave her a whole roast chicken, and like the Moon, told her to be sure not to lose any of the bones, and then they parted ways, and the woman was once more left alone with her little boy. So she put on her third and final pair of iron shoes, took up her steel staff, and began on her way.

She followed the directions of the Sun, traveling once more across the desert and then across a land of ice, where her iron shoes slipped and slid and at times threatened to break through to the water below. Her little boy, by this time, had begun to grow too heavy to carry, but was far too little to walk any of the way on his own: she  _ must _ carry him, just as she  _ must _ keep walking, just as she  _ must _ wear the iron shoes and carry her steel staff.

At night, she walked by the light of the Aurora, who sometimes descended to walk at her side, and sometimes carried her little boy, and at times this kindness seemed the only thing that let her keep moving: this, and the fire that burned deep inside her. She was always one who did what she set out to do, and would not give up after coming all this way.

Eventually, her steps brought her to the house of the four Winds, who had, of course, already heard of her coming, and had already prepared for her a rich table, a warm bath, and a comfortable bed, but the final thing they had to offer was the thing that brought her most joy: the South Wind knew where her husband waited.

With the promise of this knowledge once she was rcovered, the young wife was persuaded to take her rest, and slept for three days, while the Winds happily entertained her little boy for her, and no child has ever had such nurses, before or since!

Once the woman woke, she would not be persuaded to stay longer, so the Winds prepared her provisions and told her how to find her husband.

If (they explained) she were to walk to the south, she would find a swamp, and in this swamp, she would find a house perched on the legs of a stork, and if she could catch this house and climb inside, she would find her husband waiting for her. It would not be easy (they warned her), but she would not be deterred.

_ It was not easy to climb the white ivory mountain of the Moon, or the black glass mountain of the Sun, or walk the frozen sea of the Winds, _ she reminded them.  _ I know my own mind. I will not be turned away _ .

So, she gratefully took the provisions they offered, including the roast chicken and the reminder to hold onto the bones, slung her little boy once more on her back, put on her iron shoes (now half-worn), and took up her steel staff, and went on her way.

From here she had a little luck: the Aurora, fond of her as they were now, lifted her up to the Milky Way, which carried her easily across the frozen sea and back into the land of mortals, depositing her at the edge of the swamp where the South Wind had spotted her husband.

She found here overhead the Sun, and told him that her husband was within.

_ In that case _ _,_ he said,  _ I am afraid I cannot accompany you, for I would if I was able, but the trees grow so close together within the swamp that neither I nor my husband can reach within. _ And so saying, they parted ways once more.

It was as the Sun warned her: inside the swamp no sunlight reached, and she had soon gone beyond even what fragments of his mantle leaked in at the mouth of the swamp.

_ But, _ she reminded herself,  _ it was in darkness that I knew my husband best, and so in darkness I will find him _ _._ So she pressed forward, using her staff to pick her slow way across the swamp. And inside this swamp, where she knew neither night nor day, not the warm, encompassing light of the Sun nor the gentle, cradling light of the Moon, she at last wore away the last shreds of her last iron shoes.

Now barefoot, she began to wonder how she would know when she’d reached the house when she couldn’t see, but even as she pondered, she saw a glow ahead, and- it being the only light she had seen in a cow’s age- she began to follow it.

The light ambled slowly through the swamp, so in no time the young woman was able to catch it up: up close, she could see that the light was the porch-lantern of a small hut which was perched on a pair of stilt-like stork’s legs. It was far too high for her to reach, and when she came near the house clucked and hurried away, so that now she must chase it once more.

This happened twice more, and each time the young woman grew more frustrated: her husband was within, she knew this, and all that now kept them apart was this great walking witch’s hut. It was enough to make anyone ache, but she was not one in the habit of giving up, so when she found the hut again, she sat her down to think.

As she thought, her little boy went into her pack and took out two of the chicken bones she had been carrying, as these had been his toys this past year, and at the sight of him the woman got an idea. Had she not carried these bones this whole time on the advice of the Moon and Sun and four Winds? They must be useful to her now, or she would have carried them for nothing.

A bit more thought, and she took one of the bones and tossed it, with sure aim, to the other side of the clearing, behind the house. It clucked and tried to hurry away, thinking it was being approached, but the woman was ready, and threw another bone into its path. The house, startled, tried to turn away from this new threat, but once more was redirected as the young woman threw more bones in its path.

She kept this up until she was nearly out of bones, until the house looked dizzy and she was growing dizzy from watching, and at the last bone the poor hut was so confused that with one great cluck of resignment it sat itself down.

This was what the woman had been waiting for: she hurried forward and swung herself up onto the hut’s porch before it could get up.

Once through the door, the interior of the hut was lit only a little by the dim glow of the porchlight leaking through the windows; it served merely to create a twisting pile of shadows upon shadows, but she could see a bed against one wall and a figure lying upon it.

The figure was indistinct in the shadows, but three years had not been enough to dull her memory, and our young wife knew well the shape of her husband under her hands. When she knew it was him she kissed him and fell weeping on his breast with relief.

He did not, as she was hoping, wake immediately at her touch, but while she was trying to think how to bring him back around she set her little boy on the floor to play. Quite used to playing in the dark, he toddled through the room, and came to a table: he had never encountered a table since leaving the house of the Four Winds, and as he pawed curiously at it, he knocked it to the floor. Something that was set upon it shattered: the sound startled the house, which rose to its full height, crashing through the roof of trees above it.

Sunlight poured into the hut, blinding the woman who had been so long in darkness, but as she tried to regain her senses, she felt gentle hands on her cheeks and soft lips on her eyelids. When she opened her eyes, her husband was sitting before her, blanketed in golden sunlight and more handsome than he’d been when she first loved him. Once more she fell weeping on him, this time from joy, and he held her as she sobbed and swore to her that nothing else would dare to part them again, not now that his curse was broken.

Now, in all this time that the young wife was searching, the Sun and Moon had been watching the swamp anxiously, so when the hut burst from the trees the Sun saw immediately and hurried to join them. He was so happy for the dear lady that he offered to carry her little family home, and as he did, the couple shared their tales with each other.

The wife’s tale we have just heard; her husband’s went thus: after he left her to seek his fortune, he took to the seas, where in his travels he had many adventures we will not go into now. However, he did not amass much of a fortune, so as his seven years were nearing an end he resolved to return with what he had and to beg his case anyway.

On his way back to their village, he came upon a young woman who begged him to marry her, and when he told her he was promised to another, she revealed herself as a powerful enchantress, and laid a curse on him.

_ Go back to your bride, then, and see her married to a pig! _ the entrantress told him, and so he took on the shape he had been wearing when they met.  _ She won’t know you, but if she can remember her love for you anyway, then in a year you will be restored. But if not, then you’ll be mine _ .

_ You see _ , the young husband told his wife,  _ when you looked on me in the moonlight, it was only a few days from the day my curse would break. _

The young wife protested that she had loved her husband very much, but he explained that the old woman- who was of course the enchantress- had sowed doubts in her heart to stop her breaking the curse. Acting on those doubts rather than trust his word had been a sign that her love was not quite strong enough.

_ The enchantress took me to her hut, but when I still refused her she cast me into an enchanted sleep, from which I could only awake by the light of the Sun or his husband, neither of which could enter the swamp where she lived. And the rest you already know _ .

It was at this moment that the Sun reached them to their home. He set them down and promised to keep his eyes open for the enchantress should she come to trouble them again, and then continued on his journey across the sky. Meanwhile the little family had finally returned home after all of their troubles. The young husband gathered his wife and their little boy into his arms, and swore once more that he would see no more troubles to them again.

And he was right about himself and his wife, but his little boy grew up to have quite a few adventures of his own- ah, but that, of course, is several other stories entirely.

##  **_End_ **

**Author's Note:**

> **Addendum**
> 
> Roan hummed and stretched himself out as Bryory finished his tale, then settled back alongside his man with an amused noise.
> 
> “Is that why you always close the window shades when we make love?” he teased.
> 
> Bryory let out a sheepish laugh, and nodded. “When the Moon once bounced you on his knee as a babe, the idea of making love by Moonlight takes on a very different light.”


End file.
